


A Bird in the Hand...

by ALC_Punk



Category: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-22
Updated: 2010-05-22
Packaged: 2017-11-27 00:49:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/656173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ALC_Punk/pseuds/ALC_Punk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing revolutionary, just a character study/little action scenario with Eames, Goren and Wheeler.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Bird in the Hand...

**Author's Note:**

> Another in the random women list. This prompt was 'Alex, hidden'.

Robert Goren is nervous. From where she's standing, Alex Eames can feel the emotion spilling over--she thinks it might be a leftover piece of broken Bobby from the death of his mother, but it's not something she's prepared to speculate about. Not here and now, at least.

Not that it matters. Eames doesn't exactly blame him for being nervous.

There's a man standing too far away from the three of them, his gun wavering back and forth, but mostly pointed at Wheeler.

Megan Wheeler's just a kid, but Eames doubts that's something the man across from them will notice.

The scene hadn't been quite so tense thirty seconds before, but then the man had burst through the trees in front of them, gun in hand, shouting for them not to move, and Wheeler was just that little bit closer, so he focused on her, first.

Wheeler is standing so still, the icy calm rolling off of her is making Alex's teeth ache. She's pretty sure the kid is probably terrified, but she's not showing it. And, damn, if Alex wants to explain to Logan that they borrowed his partner only to get her shot by a lunatic in Central Park West.

But even with all of that, it's a beautiful day. And besides, Alex knows something Bobby doesn't. Something that makes Wheeler's calm a little more easy to handle. Something Megan talks about after her third margarita, when she's giggling like the schoolgirl she still resembles, and Caroline is shaking her head while Olivia suggests another round.

"Hey!" Alex waves a hand at the gunman, distracting him, pulling his attention from Wheeler. And Bobby's intensity shifts, beside her. Now he's more nervous, because the gun has shifted, to point at her. "Hey, just calm down, ok?"

"Stop!" The gun isn't shaking anymore, in fact, it's almost _steady_ as it points at Eames. "Don't try to talk me down, lady!"

"Look--"

"I know how you people are! You talk and talk and--"

"Maybe you should listen," Bobby suggests, his voice booming across the other man's. "Eames has a lot of good things to say."

"You sound like my brother trying to convince my nephew to eat his peas," Alex accuses, her tone amused. This is the sort of thing she can blather on about without thought. Easy conversation to throw out and distract anyone and everyone. Keep looking at me. Not her. Ignore Wheeler.

"How is your nephew?" Goren asks, while the gunman seems to be gathering his wits.

"Oh, he's great. His dad keeps joking about giving him to me, so his parents can get a vacation in--" Eames hears the click from her right, but continues, her tone light, "--Maui. Wheeler?"

"Put the gun down. Now."

"What--" the man shifts, gun pointing back at Wheeler. He pales as he sees her gun. "Don't point that at me!"

"Then put your gun down! I don't want to shoot you," Wheeler says, her tone perfectly calm. "But I will if I have to."

"Well--" The man pulls the trigger, grinning madly, then blinks when nothing happens.

Eames moves, feeling Bobby a half-step behind her. She grabs the gun, stripping it before their assailant realizes what she's doing. Wheeler moves, too, walking to the side, keeping him in her sights and Eames and Goren out of them. Bobby, for his part, pulls his cuffs out.

"What?" The man starts to cry, "I don't understand..."

Holding up the gun, Eames casually slides the safety off. "You forgot the first thing about gun safety. If you want to fire it, you have to flip the safety off." She flips it back on. "Safety on." Another flip. "Safety off."

"You, sir, are under arrest," Goren informs him.

"What? How? You can't arrest me, you're not the police!"

"Actually," says Eames, sliding the safety back to the 'on' position, and carefully sliding the pistol into an evidence bag, "We are the police. And that means you're under arrest."

Goren has the cuffs on the man and then Wheeler slowly relaxes, returning her small gun to its holster at her back. Once dispatch have been called, and uniforms have walked off with their 'prize', Goren turns to them, eying Alex with surprise, "Eames?"

He isn't nervous anymore, and Alex smiles enigmatically, "Come on, you two, we still have a killer to catch, remember?"

"You knew the safety was on."

"Actually," Wheeler corrects him as she walks past, heading for their destination, "We both knew the safety was on."

"Wheeler's gun?"

"Never leaves home without it." Smiling cheerfully still, Alex heads off after the younger woman. After all, there's something pleasant in having surprised Bobby Goren. It doesn't happen that often.


End file.
